Studying a methodology for tomorrow's management and administration. A study of methodology implies an interdisciplinary scientific approach to modern management and administrative techniques, an improvement of information, and stock-taking of aptitudes and attitudes of parties concerned. The author emphasizes the importance of structural environment, the field of action of politico-administrative Systems, and the need for streamlining policies with budgets and vice versa. Various structural and structure by target experiments have been tried out in the FRG.
Georges Mink Polish Sociology : history and trends This historical survey of polish sociology from 1945 until today does more than brush up or summarize the main trends involded. Beyond his critical evaluation, the author offers an epistemological insight cen¬ tered on the paradoxe of sociology as a profession in a country where state doctrine dominates all forms of indépendant thought on society. Theory and methodology appear in this article as a result of the social and political conditions in which sociology is produced.
Retail Prices in Moscow and in Four Western Cities in November 1971. This paper lists the retail prices of 168 roughly comparable goods and services as observed in Moscow and in four Western cities in November 1971. The nature of the sample and the limitations of the comparison are discussed. The first appendix lists the retail prices in the local currencies. These are converted to US dollars at the rate of exchange introduced in December 1971, in the second appendix. In Appendix 3, these prices are related to the average take-home pay of the industrial workers, male and female, of the respective countries in November 1971. The methodology is admittedly controversial and suggested improvements for future comparisons are invited.
L'ANALYSE DES SITUATIONS AUTORITAIRES : ÉTUDE BIBLIOGRAPHIQUE JEAN-FRANÇOIS BAYART L'absence de bibliographie de synthèse relative aux « autoritarismes » incite à inventorier et à évaluer les principaux modes d'appréhension de ces régimes à partir d'une centaine d'ouvrages choisis pour leur qualité monographique, leur intérêt comparatif ou leur contribution méthodologique. On peut différencier ces travaux selon trois critères majeurs : l'orientation politique et idéologique sous-jacente, l'approche utilisée, le site d'analyse retenu. Il apparaît alors que le niveau théorique et méthodologique des travaux disponibles est souvent médiocre, que peu d'entre eux étudient les régimes autoritaires en tant que tels et que les échanges scientifiques entre spécialistes des diverses aires géographiques et culturelles sont restreints. Ces constatations appellent un effort méthodologique renouvelé et adapté à une meilleure compréhension des situations autoritaires, dans une perspective comparative. [Revue française de science politique XXVI (3), juin 1976, pp. 483-520.] AN ANALYSIS OF AUTHORITARIAN SITUATIONS BIBLIOGRAPHIC STUDY JEAN-FRAN OIS BAYART The lack of consolidated bibliography on authoritarian situations provides the incentive to catalogue and evaluate the main methods of understanding these regimes on the basis of some hundred works chosen for their quality as mono graphs their comparative worth or their contribution as regards methodology These works can be distinguished by means of three major criteria the under lying political and ideological orientation the approach used and the area of analysis adopted It transpires in fact that the theoretical and methodological level of the works available is in many cases mediocre that few of them investi gate authoritarian regimes as such and that scientific exchanges between specia lists from various geographic and cultural areas are limited These findings illustrate the need for comparative purposes for new methodology appropriate to better understanding of authoritarian situations Revue fran aise de science politique XXVI 3) juin 1976 pp 483-520.
Mother-child interaction in the first year of life and autistic mother-child interaction : first steps towards an integrated interactive model of both normal and pathological development. - The paper puts forward an integrative view between the clinical study of early infantile autism and the study of the first phases of normal development. The approach is clinical and Winnicott's psycho-analytical contribution on mother-child relationship and recent research on early social development (R.H.Shaffer, D. Stern, etc.) are used as a conceptual frame of reference. It is suggested that the discontinuity between normal developmental models and pathological ones can be compared in the study of autism if the following criteria are assumed : a) the treatment of such a disturbance in dyadic terms, focusing on mother-autistic child interaction ; b) an observational methodology ; c) a comparison with data from mother-infant interaction in the first year of life observed in a natural setting. The interactive model suggested is that autism is a rigid ripetition of the original relationship caracterized by a marked asynchrony between the rhytms, the needs and feelings of both child and mother. The comparison between clinical observation of both autistic and normal mother-child interaction indicates that this disturbance « reveals » the inadequacy, the excessiveness or the distorsio of early interactional patterns that are described in some detail.
The background & underlying concepts of polemology are discussed. Polemology is most simply defined as "the science of conflict." The concerns of sociology since its founding in the ninteenth century have been tied to the desire to establish a stable & equitable social order. Polemology has opened new avenues of exploration for sociology. The relation between polemology & Marxism is discussed. The schema of class conflict forms an integral part of polemology. Methodology in this relatively new field is discussed. One major problem is the determination of a definition of the concept of conflict. In the strict etymological sense, the word denotes an encounter which produces an impact. Two living entities must be involved--the encounter of a man & a rock, or even a man & an animal, cannot be defined as "conflict." The concept is characterized by the desire to destroy, tied with manifest aggression. War is a specific type of conflict which pits political entities against one another in a power contest. By means of war, a collectivity may justify the principles which give unity to its existence. The right to wage war is fundamental to the existence of an independent political entity. Politics entails the risk of other types of violence than war. Aggression may be manifested in the form of strikes, plotting, rebellion, armed insurrection, & even open revolution. The study of polemology covers war, peace, & all societal conflicts, whether or not they are violent. The flaw in such pacifistic theories is the failure to recognize the existence of the enemy. In polemology the consideration of peace includes, rather than excludes, the enemy, since failure to recognize the enemy's existence eventually results in recourse to violence either in the form of war or of political repression. B. Annesser.
The Interdisciplinary Character of Research on Administration. In a study of the interdisciplinary problems of administration, the author is interested in the activity of teams elaborating limited syntheses on essentiel problems and not on universal ones. He presents what he considers are essential topics based on his personal experience in the practical working in this field. The problem of methodology is the first to confront the researcher, the need existing for different members of the team to use different methods, despite supposedly comparative results. The same method cannot be used indifferently by the Jurist, the Sociologist, the Psychologist and the Economist even when the team's research work bears on a common project. The second problem is that of vocabulary and common comprehension. Legal terms have a certain ascendancy over other scientific terminology, since they are invested with the authority of the Law. Teams should therefore be versed in legal terminology and Jurists should assimilate notions proper to other sciences and techniques, such as Sociology or Computerization. To render the language of comparative research adequate, a larger spectrum of terms, common to several sciences, would be useful although total identity seems impossible. The third problem is in the composition of the team. "Qualitative disproportions" in the capacities of team members does not necessarily disqualify the team, as long as the central creative guideline of the research is assured by able specialists, particularly since the other participating disciplines only exploit the data and are not expected to propose new conceptions. The fourth problem is exploiting the material, especially that which has already been collected by the administration, concerning its activity and its social effects. This material is often unpublished and it would be useful if research had access to it. In other words, the team should be allowed to practice independently even when the documents belong to the administration. For the best results people having a practical knowledge of the functioning of the administration should also be integrated into the team. The fifth problem is that of deriving conclusions. The team's composition and the subjects of the research should already give some indications regarding the conclusion, the question on which the conclusion should bear having already been decided when the team was created. Only the contents remain unknown, although hypothetically foreseen. There is, therefore, not only the case of the contents of the conclusions but also of their efficiency or social value. The measure of this value is their present or future use in bettering society. From this point of view the criticism of the conclusions often leads to mutual accusations between theory and practice. The author of this article who is a "professional theoretician" admits his own tendency to lend an ear to practice and concludes: "Although the detailed solution of administrative problems is part of the activity of different sciences, interdisciplinary research teams have another job to fulfill. Over the past 20 years, analysis of the development and needs of science indicates that the important needs, and possibilities for discoveries and new propositions lie at the crossroads of the different scientific branches. Thus, the best way to generate new answers to the same questions concerning the administration is by studying "fronteer" problems via interdisciplinary teams".
